


The Lost Boy

by horatiofrog



Category: 13 Reasons Why (TV)
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene, S2 E6 The Smile at the End of the Dock, alternate perspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-11
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-06-25 15:42:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15643848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/horatiofrog/pseuds/horatiofrog
Summary: Matt goes looking for an intruder and finds a little more than he bargained for in his son's bedroom.  A 'missing scene' to "The Smile at the End of the Dock."





	The Lost Boy

_“Who the_ hell _are you?!”_

It was a perfectly reasonable question.  Matt stood his ground, baseball bat still at the ready, still staring at the lanky kid standing in his son’s bedroom.

The kid took a second to compose himself.  There wasn’t much to him, Matt thought.  Skin and bones, that was all.  The clothes the boy wore were Clay’s, and they fit pretty badly.  He had about three inches on Clay, and was _just_ as tall as Matt himself.  “L-look, it’s okay,” he began.  “I’m…Clay knows I’m here.”

“But who the hell _are_ you?  And why are you wearing my son’s clothes?”  Now Matt was confused.

“I’m…”  The kid licked dry, chapped lips.  Matt looked into a set of greenish-blue eyes and found a lot of pain and sorrow in them.  “My name is Justin Foley, sir.  I…I go to school with Clay.”

_Justin Foley…_    The name sounded familiar to Matt, but he couldn’t figure out why.  “And the clothes?”

“I…I don’t really have any, sir.”  Justin glanced over at a battered sports bag.  Matt inched over, still keeping a firm grip on the bat, and peered inside.  There were a few beaten rags, but not much else.

“Where did you come from?”

Shame filled the boy’s features.  “The street,” he said, almost as an explanation.

“And Clay decided to bring you home?!”  It was this that puzzled Matt most of all.   Clay had tried to adopt pets in the past – a neighbor’s kitten for a week, a stray dog, an injured bird that only lived a few days – but _this_ …

“He had his reasons, sir.”  Justin clammed up, and Matt couldn’t get much more out of him.  That was certain.

“Matt?  Honey, are you home?”  The sound of his wife’s voice sent a little thrill down Matt’s spine.  “Someone broke in a window…oh, there you are…” Lainie grew silent as she reached Clay’s room.  Matt could see the confusion and wonder crossing her face.  “And who is this?”

“Um…I’m…my name is Justin Foley, ma’am.  Clay knows I’m here.”

“Justin Foley?  _The_ Justin Foley?”

The kid shrugged, but had the grace to look guilty.  “Lainie, do you know this kid?” he asked.

Lainie sighed.  It was one of her patented _gearing-up-for-an-explanation_ sighs.  “I think we’d better take this downstairs,” she said, her voice brooking no room for argument.

* * *

 

Once settled, Lainie began to explain.  “Justin Foley was one of the kids the Baker’s had subpoenaed for the trial,” she said.  “He _failed_ to appear.”  She stared right at the young man, daring him to look at her.  The kid couldn’t hold her gaze.  “Care to explain?”

“I…I left town,” he began, a quaver in his voice. 

“Whatever for?”

Shame filled the young man’s face.  “I…needed to get out.  I had some issues.  They weren’t gonna get fixed.”

“Well, where did you stay?”

A light bulb suddenly turned on in Matt’s head.  “The street,” he said.  “You were homeless?”

Justin nodded.

The revelation took both Jensens by surprise.  Matt knew Lainie was just as askance as he was.  “And Clay…”

“He and Tony…Tony Padilla, you know him?”

“Tony’s a friend of Clay’s.  We’re familiar,” Lainie said.  “Continue.”

“Well, somehow they figured out where I was, and they…they _saved_ me.  But…”

“I still don’t understand.  You couldn’t go home?” Matt was confused on that point.

Justin shook his head.  He didn’t elaborate.

At that point, the front door cracked.  Footsteps echoed through the front foyer.  “Clay?” Lainie called out.  “Clay Matthew, get in here, please!”

The sight of his son slinking into the room told Matt everything.  “Look what I found in your room today, Clay,” he said, attempting to inject a little humor into the situation.  “It’s a step up from a stray dog, don’t you think?”

Clay, shamefaced, sat down on the sofa next to Justin.  “Look, I can explain…”

“Oh, please do.  Now.”  Lainie was all ears.

* * *

 

After dinner, the boys had gone back upstairs to Clay’s room.  Matt finished loading the dishwasher and Lainie sat at the kitchen table, slumped into the chair.  “God, I should make those phone calls now,” she said, reaching for her phone.

“They can wait until morning, can’t they?” Matt said gently.  He sat across from her and took her hand into his.

Lainie exhaled audibly.  “Matt, what the _hell_ was he thinking?”

“ _He?_ You mean Clay?”

“Well, yeah.  I mean, the kid’s in contempt.  If we’re lucky, it’ll blow over as long as Justin makes himself available to testify at the court’s discretion.  _If_ we’re lucky.”  She ran a hand through her hair.  “This trial…God, Matt.  This whole thing has Clay on edge.  Look what happened _last_ time!”

“I know.  I was the one sitting with him in the hospital, remember?”  _That_ was an image Matt cared never to revisit.  The sight of his only child, bleeding internally because he’d goaded an older boy into confessing to raping a girl…but not just _any_ girl.  Matt was convinced that Clay had been in love with Hannah Baker, and her suicide and the rippling effects of that were taking a toll on his child.  He thought of the Standall boy, who’d just barely avoided Hannah’s fate, and the girl on tape nine, whom Hannah had said had been raped by the Walker kid.

_How much more do our children have to suffer?_

He thought of Justin, the young man his son had smuggled into their home and installed in his own room.  Matt thought of the countless meals Clay had eaten in his room the past week; the incident in front of the shower just the other day; the extra laundry Clay had ‘suddenly’ found he needed to do.  “A week, Lainie,” he said.  “He hid this kid in his room for a solid _week._ ”  Matt pounded the table.  “Are we fucking _blind_?”

“No, Matt.  I think we’re trying.  And coming up short.”

“Well, get ready.  ‘Cause whether we are or not, now there’s _two_ teenage boys connected to this…this _thing_ we’re responsible for.”  He thought of Justin’s answer to why he’d been homeless.  There was no way in hell he would send a kid back to that.  Not a chance.  “I’ll take tomorrow and get Justin settled.  I don’t have classes, thank God, so a few clothes and some shoes can be arranged.”

Lainie nodded.  “I’ll try and find some extra things here, for the morning.  I have the afternoon off, so I’ll handle the clothes.  You get some more groceries.”

_Ready or not_ , Matt thought, _here we go._


End file.
